Typewriting machine



April 7, 1942. J. A. B. SMITH ET AL 2,278,743'

TYPEWRITING MACHINE Filed Sept. 22, 1939 u n a l ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 7, 1942 2,278,743 TYPEWRITING MACHINE Jesse A. B.- Smith, Stamford, Conn., and Fred Becker, Queens Village, N. Y., assi'gnorsv to Underwood Elliott Fisher Company, .Newk York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application September 22, 1939, Serial No. 296,072

(ol. la7-s4) 6 Claims.

This invention relates to typewriting machines adapted for the justification of typed matter, by which machines each typed line may be expanded or contracted, in accordance with'the setting of the justifying mechanism, to terminate evenly at a prescribed margin'.

Among the objects of the invention is to provide a typewriter justifying mechanism of simple and rugged construction that is easily settable to a selected degree of justifying and affords a wide justifying range so as to accommodate substantial variations in the line lengths ofthe unjustified typing.

Another object is to provide an arrangement of a justifying mechanism which is particularly adapted to be incorporated in the standard typewriter to equip same for justifying with the minimum of changes in the machine, and wherein the operating parts are conveniently accessible for inspection and servicing. f

In its physical embodiment, the invention contemplates a justifying mechanism having the rack unit, preferably composed of a series of individual gear racks, slidably mounted, for example, on the typewriter carriage sothat any one of the racks ymay be readily positioned to mesh with a pinion rotatably controlled by the usual letter feed escapement mechanism. A corresponding length of each rack, preferably an intermediate portion, has the rack teeth spaced differently from those of the other racks, the number of teeth inV each rack increasing gradually as by one tooth over the adjacent rack to present a series of individual racks of graduated degrees of justifying. The invention further contemplates the provision of a setting lever readily accessible to the operator and having a pointer cooperating with a readily visible, graduated scale, which facilitates the selection of the desired justifying rack in a rapid and convenient manner.

Other objects and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a portion of a typewriter embodying theV invention, illustrating only such of the typewriter mechanism and parts as relate to the justifying mechanism.

Figure-2 is a top plan View of the invention as shown in Figure 1, and,

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic composite view of the several gear racks comprising the justifying rack'unit.

In the physical embodiment illustrated, the invention isincorporated in a standard Underwood typewriter, wherein -a platen 5 is rotatably mounted on end members 6: of a platen` carriage mounted for line typing movement laterally of the typewriter on carriage railsy such as at .1, under influence of the usual drum spring, not shown.

The typewriter may have the conventional tab-4 ulating mechanismincluding a tabulatorrack 8 mountedon'the carriage andcarrying a series of letter spaced `stops 9 to be engagedi by key-settable tabulator blades, not shown, mounted to rev ciprocate` in a housing II secured to the-main frame of the typewriter, all in the well-known manner.

A letter-feed escapement mechanism of the usual rotary type isA Provided, an escapement wheel I2 of which is shown, carried on a-shaft I3 journaled in a bearing I4 .adjacent the wheel I2Y and supported at its outwardly projecting end in ay bearing bracket I5 secured to the tabulator housing II or other fixed portion of the main frame'. As will be presently seen, the shaft I3 is geared to the carriage 6 and rotates in one direction when .the carriage travels in letter feed impelled by the drum spring, rotating oppositelyr when the carriage is being returned. Suitable means is provided, such as the usual pawl-andratchet device I6, to allow the carriage to be returned unhampered by the letter-feed mechanisms. In the embodiment shown, the device I6 ratchets over during carriage return, allowing the escapement wheel I2 to remain stationary while the shaft I3 rotates incident 'to carriage return. During letter-feed travel, ythe escapement wheel I2 is rotated by shaft I3 which drives the escapement wheel by the coupling of the ratchet device IS. The advance of the carriage is thus controlled to letter space steps by the escapement mechanism.

In accordance with the invention, the improved justifying mechanism includes generally a rack unit I 8 and a gear pinion I9, the rack unit I8 being'slidably mounted to selectably mesh any one of thejustifyingjracks 20 thereof with the pinion I9.

l The rack'unit I8 is preferably carried on the platen carriage, on the end members 6 of which rearwardly projecting brackets 22, 23 are provided. In the construction intended to adapt the herein described justifying mechanism to the `conventional typewriter to equip same for justifying, the brackets 22, 23 may be attached by suitable means to the usual carriage frame. Herein these brackets are shown asy forming an integral part of the carriage end members 6 and are braced laterally together as by crossrods 24 and 25, the ends of which are xed in the respective brackets. Each bracket 22, 23 supports a slide rod 26 and the rack unit I8 has members 2'I extending end-wise therefrom, preferably integral with certain of the racks 20, to provide slide bearings riding on the rods 26. The pinion I9, which may be meshed selectively with any one of the racks 20 by sliding the rack unit I8, is fixed to the shaft I3 and, in conjunction with the letter-feed; escapement mechanism, controls the line-typing carriage movement.

To facilitate the detailed description of theV justifying racks 20, same are respectively identifled by the numbers I to 8, there being preferably eight justifying racksv provided. Seven or eight racks are generally considered adequate for justifying typed matter, although the arrangement is adapted to accommodate more racks if required.

With reference to Figure 3 in which a composite view of all of the eight racks 20 is shown, it will be seen that these racks differ only in the spacing of the rack teeth in a corresponding intermediate portion of the respective racks, which portion represents the justifying, zone, through which Zone the letter-space movement of the carriage is varied, in accordance with the setting of the rack unit I8, so as to expand or contract the line to terminate at a prescribed right-hand margin. The present invention, in

regard to the spacing of the teeth in the respective racks, is similar to that shown in the patent to Dodds No. 2,118,343, issued May 2'4, 1938. The length of the intermediate rack portion representing the justifying zone is an arbitrary distance but should be sufficient so that the maximum variation of letter spaces for justifying, herein seven spaces, would not be a noticeable one if occurring at two adjacent typed lines. For a carriage movement of eight or nine inches, a justifying zone of four-inch length is considered adequate. Assuming that the machine is equipped with pica type, the letter spacing of which is one-tenth inch or ten letter spaces per inch of type, the justifying zone of four-inch length at normal letter spacing includes forty letter spaces. The terminal portions of each rack which, for a nine-inch carrage movement would be each approximately two-and-one-half inches long, contain twentyfive teeth for all of the eight racks. That is, the end portions of each rack have the teeth spaced at the conventional pitch of ten teeth per inch. It will be seen from the table of dimensions in Figure 3 that the rack number 4, that is, one

of the medial racks of the group has for-ty teeth in the justifying zone and therefore no change in the line length from that in the unjustified typed matter would occur when this rack is being used. It will also be seen from the table that the racks to one side of rack number i have a gradually decreasing number of teeth in the justifying Zone, to accordingly expand the typed line certain numbers of letter spaces, while -the racks at the other side of number I rack have a gradually increasing number of teeth to thereby contract the line length certain numbers of letter spaces.

,Justification of typed matter is usually done by retyping from an unjustified c-opy onwhich the degree of justifying for each individual line is determined in relation to a line of average length. In other Words the operator determines the number of letter spaces to be added to or subtracted from the average line length so that i justifying zone.

when retyping the matter for justifying, each line will be automatically expanded or contracted so as to correspond in actual length with that of the average typed line. As shown in the table in Figure 3, when rack number I having thirtyseven teeth is used, which is three teeth less than the conventional letter spacing, the line will be automatically expanded to the extent of three letter spaces, which addition will be distributed over the entire typing occupying the Likewise, when number 8 rack which has forty-four teeth in the justifying zone, is used, the line will be contracted to the extent of four letter spaces, that is, the forty-four type characters including the word spaces will be condensed or gathered into an intermediate line length of forty-letter spaces. A similar effect is had by use of any other of the racks, except that the number of spaces by which the line is changed varies, with no change by rack number 4.

Each of the racks 20 is preferably formed of an individual rack bar, for economical manufacture, and these racks are secured together to form the rack unit I8, by suitable means such as the screws 28 passing therethrough. In that the rack unit I8 is made up of a number of separable racks 20 each having a different tooth spacing in the justifying zone thereof, the construction permits of cutting teeth of each different rack separately, which, in quantity production, allows a large number of each 0f the individual racks to be cut or formed simultaneously, as by a milling operation.

In assembled condition the end portions of each rack, having correspondingly spaced teeth, are aligned with each other, so that in sliding the rack unit I8 to mesh a selective rack 20 with the pinion I9, the rack unit will slide easily over` the pinion when the platen carriage is adjacent either limit of its travel, at either of which positions the pinion I8 will be at one of the endzones of the racks.

Means are provided by which the operator may conveniently set the rack unit I8 for the desired justification and include a cross shaft 30 journaled in the carriage end members 6 and havingl fixed at respective ends thereof arms 3| and 32. The free end of each of the arms 3|, 32 is articulated to the rack unit I8, being connected by a corresponding link 33 to a lug 34 adjacent each end of the rack unit I'B. The lugs 34 are each preferably formed on a connecting plate 35 which extends between the projecting rack members 2l and is secured thereto.

The arm 32 is extended to provide an operating lever, and has at its free end a finger piece 36. A pointer 3l on the arm 32 cooperates with a graduated scale 38 on the adjacent carriage end member 6, by which to indicate to the operator the setting of the justifying rack unit. The graduations of the scale 38 are preferably numbered consecutively to identify each of the racks 20. Ihus when the pointer 31 is at I of the scale 38, the operator will know that rack number I is in mesh with the pinion I9. If desired the scale 38 may be calibrated to indicate the numbers of letter spaces by which the typed lines are expanded or contracted, for each individual rack. The adjusted position of the rack unit I8 is yieldably maintained by a spring detent 40, preferably formed on each plate 35 and having a projection engaging in one of a series,

of recesses 4I on each of the arms 22, 23. l

Although in this application, there is ,specifically described, one embodiment which the invention may assume in practice, it will be understood that same is shown for the purposes of illustration, and that the invention may be modified and embodied in various other forms without departing from its spirit or the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

v1. In a justifying mechanism for typewriters having a rotary-escapement-controlled carriage movable in line typing; a pinion rotatable with the escapement, a rack unit including a plurality of racks of different tooth pitch in co-planar relation, means slidably mounting said rack unit for movement axially of said pinion to selectively mesh any one of said racks with said pinion, and a rockable bail having arms articulated to said rack unit adjacent the ends thereof.

2. In a justifying mechanism for typewriters having a main frame and a rotary-escapementcontrolled carriage movable in line typing thereon; a pinion on the main frame rotatable with the escapement, a rack unit including a plurality of racks of different tooth pitch in coplanar relation and slidably mounted on the carriage for movement axially of said pinion to selectively mesh any one of said racks with said pinion, a rock shaft journaled in the carriage and having arms adjacent its ends articulated to said rack unit, and detent means to yieldably hold said rack unit, in selected position.

3. In a justifying mechanism for typewriters having a main frame and a rotary-escapementcontrolled carriage movable in line typing thereon; a pinion on the main frame rotatable with the escapement, a rack unit including a plurality of racks of diierent tooth pitch in co-planar relation and slidably mounted on the carriage for movement axially of said pinion to selectively mesh any one of said racks with said pinion, a rock shaft journaled in the carriage and having arms adjacent its ends articulated to said rack unit, detent means to yieldably hold said rack unit in selected position, and a manually operable selector lever operatively connected to said rock shaft.

4. In a typewriter having a traversing escapement-controlled carriage, a rack-unit comprising a plurality of adjacent letter-feed racks having differentl numbers of teeth over adjacent rack portions of equal length, all said teeth being in a single plane, and means for adjusting said rack-unit in said plane in opposite directions to different positions to select; said racks for individual cooperation with said escapement, said means including a rotatable member having rigid connections to both ends of the rack-unit to move said ends in lunison in either direction of adjustment.

5. In a typewriter having a traversing escapement-controlled carriage, a rack-unit at the rear of the carriage comprising a plurality of adjacent letter-feed racks having dierent numbers of teeth over adjacent rack portions of equal length, all said teeth being in a single plane, and means for adjusting said rack-unit in said plane in opposite directions to different positions to select said racks for individual cooperation with said escapement, said means including a rotatable member forwardly of the rack unit and having rigid connections to both ends of the rack unit to move said ends in unison in either direction of adjustment, and an operating handle on said member.

6. In a typewriter having a traversing escapement-controlled carriage, a rack-unit comprising a plurality of adjacent letter-feed racks having different numbers of teeth over adjacent rack portions of equal length, all said teeth being in a single plane, means for adjusting said rackunit in said plane in opposite directions to different positions to select said racks for individual cooperation with said escapement, said means including a rotatable shaft extending substantially from end to endof said rack unit and having corresponding operative connections to each end of the rack unit to move said ends in unison in either direction of adjustment.

JESSE A. B. SMITH. FRED BECKER. 

